Communication devices and other electronic components, especially mobile telephones, are a very common consumer product. In many countries, a popular type of payment arrangement for service associated with a device (such as telecommunication service for a mobile telephone) is for the user to make payments to credit their account in advance of using the mobile telephone. This type of payment is commonly known as “pre-pay”. The process of making a payment and crediting the user's account is commonly known as a “top-up”, which term reflects the normal manner of usage in which the user frequently tops up their account by relatively small amounts. Many pre-pay systems allow the user to make payments at a variety of retail outlets, thereby allowing the user to pay for a top-up at a location which is convenient to them.
Conventional stored value accounts such as mobile telephone accounts are reloaded or “topped up” in a two-step process. First, the customer purchases at a retail outlet a stored value card having a PIN (e.g., of up to 16 or more letters and/or digits) associated with a specific value such as $20. Second, the customer accesses a central processor, e.g., by calling an 800 number on the back of the card, and requests to add the card's value to the customer's account. During the call, the customer typically provides card identification information such as a PIN as well as information sufficient to identify the customer's account, such as a phone number associated with the account and the name of the account provider. For instance, a customer attempting to add the card value to a wireless phone account may call an 800 number on the back of the card to access a centralized VRU. In response to various VRU prompts, the customer may input the card PIN, the name of the customer's service provider (such as AT&T), and the phone number corresponding to the wireless account. The central VRU system may then cause the card value to be added to the customer's wireless account.
Many of these cards are still printed, stored and transported by the Mobile Operators under highly secure conditions to the retailer or distributor as they are effectively active (i.e. useable and therefore valuable) as soon as they are printed. As the market has expanded, the logistical complexity of maintaining this process for such large numbers of transactions and the costs associated with managing the many opportunities for fraud and system abuse led the Network Operators to seek other alternatives. Often, no record is kept of where a card has been distributed, as the route to market is often quite elaborate. Some small stores buy cards at cash and carries, and few if any systems have been developed that can cancel all stolen cards. Lorries full of cards have been stolen; staff in stores have sold cards and pocketed the money themselves. Cards (or other physical embodiments of a PIN or other identifier) are often equivalent to money.
More recently electronic payment systems of crediting a mobile phone account have been developed. Some of these systems use magnetic stripe cards in which limited user details were contained within a magnetic stripe. In some recent systems, cards are distributed in an “inactive state” and activated at the point of sale (“POS”).
Despite intense efforts by the mobile operators to promote an earlier electronic system, market acceptance has been slow. Cards have not reduced in popularity, it is simply that the cards are expensive for the mobile operators and have been encouraged to decline, and alternative systems are being promoted and made increasingly attractive.
Other systems enable customers to replenish prepaid mobile phone accounts by sending an SMS message to a centralized system. For instance, U.S. Application Publication No. 2002/0115424 to Bagoren discloses one such system. Other relevant systems includes those described in the following patents and applications: U.S. Pat. No. 6,375,073 to Aebi et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,070,067 to Nguyen et al.; and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0187772 to Hyyppa et al. The disclosures of all references mentioned herein are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
There are several disadvantageous costs associated with many prior art systems and methods: a cost of IVR provisioning; a cost of Customer Services for high rate of fall-out from IVR (typing in a number consisting of 16 digits can be difficult and can involve error); cost of secure delivery; cost of wastage, loss, and theft; and a high cost for retailer to hold all denominations of all service providers. Also, the end-user may be unlikely to find the right denomination for the right operator at all merchants. Also, the process can be time-consuming for the customer.
In addition, many people do not like carrying yet more plastic cards. Most plastic cards are not transferable. In other words, a first user cannot top up a second user's account with the first user's card. The cards from many service providers do not have a phone number on them, so they can get mixed up. The unregistered cards are often used once and discarded. As they are plastic, they are more expensive than the cards they replace.
It is desirable to provide an improved system and method for adding value to a stored-value account.